This year is turning out to be a little frustrating for Dagestani light heavyweight title prospect Magomed Ankalaev. He defeated Aleksander Rakic by a unanimous decision at UFC 308 placing himself in the sole No. 1 position in the light heavyweight division. Despite that, he has yet to get a title fight against Alex Pereira. Instead, he ended up fighting the #9 and #5 fighters respectively this year. While Ankalaev patiently waits for his call to fight Alex Pereira, the Brazilian has other ideas in mind.

‘Poatan’ has teased a move to the heavyweight division, with a possible legacy fight against Jon Jones to fulfill his wish of being a three-division champion. Jones is in sync with the idea as well. “Alex Pereira and I, we’re both 37 years old. Right now I weigh about 235 [pounds]. I’m an incredibly light heavyweight. I think Pereira walks around at 240. I think that fight would go much farther on my legacy than a young man who’s cool today and maybe gone tomorrow,” Jones had said.

To this Pereira cryptically replied, “Chama my brother. Let’s make them wait…” on Instagram tagging both Jones and UFC CEO Dana White. The fun fact is that, while in the heavyweight division, Jon Jones is repeatedly called out by Tom Aspinall for ‘ducking’ the fight against. things look similar in the light heavyweight division as well. Ankalaev is not taking the two champs’ teasing silently and has been firing shots on social media for some time. He recently even revealed his stance on the title fight while speaking to the Ushatayka channel.

Magomed Ankalaev reveals how Alex Pereira is ducking a fight with him

The light heavyweight #1 contender spoke to the Russian YouTube channel and revealed ‘Poatan’s’ secret. He said, “We have already said that we have already announced three free dates but there is no answer from the champion. While some say that he has an injury someone says he took some period of rest.” He also spoke to Russian news outlet TASS, blaming Pereira for delaying the much-anticipated fight. The light heavyweight contender said, “Pereira has not yet agreed to the fight. But, sooner or later, it will happen. I think the fight can take place in May.”

Ankalaev, who is on a 13-fight winning streak, is getting restless about his chance to fight for the belt. However, it is not surprising that Pereira is resting for a while because he saved UFC this year more than once. He did so by appearing on short notice to save high-profile UFC cards, defending his title thrice in 175 days. The 37-year-old has to be in his best shape to fight Ankalaev. After his last fight at UFC 307,  Pereira revealed that he was dealing with injuries and needed much-deserved time to heal them. There is one more angle to this delay. 

The Brazilian was not happy with the disrespect from the Dagestani and his camp, and stated he would intentionally make him wait for the title shot. “The reality is the organization don’t want him to fight because he’s boring. People don’t like to watch him fight. He’s not a guy that sells pay-per-views… It’s not up to me. The organization don’t want to make the fight, but now, because they keep saying that, keep disrespecting, maybe I’ll make it a little bit even harder for them to fight me,” Pereira said in an interview.

Ahead of Ankalaev’s UFC 308 fight, he wrote via an IG story, “I wanted Ankalaev to win so he could wait a little longer, but I can’t see him beating Rakić.” But here is the twist. Ankalaev can find his support in White. After his victory over Rakic, White was asked, “Magomed all week has said that you told him that he needed an impressive performance to get the next title shot. What you thought of his victory?” To which White emphatically said, “He looked good, absolutely looked great.”

In the same conversation, White said a clear “yes” to the possible title bout when he was reminded that Ankalaev’s 13-fight UFC unbeaten streak at 205 pounds is the second-longest in divisional history behind Jon Jones at 18. If that was not enough, just a week back, MMA fighting posted a clip of White where he summarily discarded the idea of a Jones-Pereira fight.

“There is f*****g way I can make the Alex Pereira fight. Jon’s too big, great wrestler, see how he took Stipe down in first round. I like Alex Pereira, I like him personally. It just doesn’t make sense to make that fight,” White had said. Amid all these, Ankalaev took a shot at both Pereira and Jones for aiming for a heavyweight brawl. He voiced his displeasure for not taking fights in their respective divisions.

Magomed Ankalaev disses Jon Jones and Alex Pereira for avoiding inevitable fights

Ankalaev fired the first shot when he wrote on X that it “Sounds like someone scary of big TOM” in response to Jones’ tease, before admitting that he’s a fan of the British juggernaut and would like to one day train with the interim heavyweight champion. The 20 fight winner then launched his attack with a series of X posts to spew venom at Pereira and Jones.

He posted a picture of the two of them while they were attending UFC 306 and wrote, “[Goat emoji x2] [duck emoji x2] DFC These guys are a joke” In addition to this remark Ankalaev accused Jones of ducking Aspinall. He also showed interest in fighting Jones. The Russian stalwart posted on X about his plans stating, “Jones doesn’t want to fight Aspinall, Pereira is recovering and I’m hungry. I will beat Pereira and after that, I can beat Jones.”

Jones was not silent either, and came up with a cutthroat reply. “Magomed, jealousy won’t earn you legend status. Train harder, hate less. Want to truly insult me? Break some of my records first. Let’s get started.”

The Dagestani in turn spoke about his desire to fight both the champs. He revealed his plans in the press conference for the 2024 MMA World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Ankalev dubbed his opponents ‘tasty desserts’ and indicated he was looking forward to fighting both if he got the chance.

However, he has to wait till May to satiate his hunger for the fight. But even if he gets his chance, do you think Ankalaev will be able to win the fight against ‘Poatan’? Let us know in the comments.